NEEDS OF THE FOSTER CHILD

Meeting the Needs of the Foster Child: Tips and Strategies for the Classroom

Dr. Misty LaCour, Kaplan University

Dr. Penny McGlawn, Harding University

Corresponding Author: Dr. Misty LaCour

741 El Dorado Road Lot 117

Magnolia, AR 71753

870-918-3827


Abstract

An individual’s development is directly affected by the individual’s environment. As such, it is no wonder that children experiencing abuse and neglect struggle to succeed socially and academically. Due to these past negative experiences and the transient nature of current living conditions, foster children possess unique needs that often present a challenge for the classroom teacher. Foster children tend to struggle socially and academically, particularly in the area of literacy development. However, classroom teachers can implement specific strategies to support the social and academic development of the foster child. This article presents five ready to implement tips and strategies teachers can use in the classroom to connect with the foster child, assist the child in exhibiting appropriate social behaviors, further the development of literacy skills in the child, and ultimately help the child to succeed.

Meeting the Needs of the Foster Child:Tips and Strategies for the Classroom

Introduction

Imagine you are a young child. You watch as a police officer puts your mom in the back of his car. Lights are flashing. You're scared. You were always told in school that police officers are nice. So why is he taking your mommy away? A lady comes and puts you in her car. She drives you to her office. Along the way she tells you your mommy made some bad choices, and you are going to have to go live with someone else for a while until your mommy can get you back. It's late at night. You are still waiting for this lady to find you a bed to sleep in. You are tired and scared. She finally takes you to a home. You have to drive a long way to get there. You are greeted by a lady at the door. The lady tells you this will be your foster mom. She and the lady talk for a minute. She puts you in bed. There are unfamiliar noises all around you.
In the morning, you wake up in this strange bed, in a strange room, in a strange house. The people get you dressed for school, but these aren't your clothes. You think, "Where are my clothes? Where is my mommy? When can I go home?" The foster mom drives you to a school you have never been to, with a teacher you do not know. The kids in the classroom stare at you and whisper. Who will you sit by at lunch? Who will you play with at recess?
This scenario is common and typical for foster children. Foster children enter your classroom with fear, confusion, and anger. The traumatic experiences they have encountered, during their removal from their home as well as the events that led to their removal, result in unique needs. Teachers can meet the needs of foster children through the implementation of specific tips and strategies in their classroom. Through reaching out to foster children to meet their needs, teachers can have a positive impact on the foster child’s academic progress as well as social and emotional well-being.

Theoretical Basis

According to Bronfenbrenner, an individual’s development is directly affected by the individual’s environment which is composed of four interlocking structural settings (Tissington, 2008). One of these four interlocking structural settings, the microsystem, is “the most immediate contexts in which the developing individual interacts with people, such as those between a child and family members living within the home” (Bohlin, Durwin, & Reese-Weber, 2009, p. 31; Fu, n.d. para. 7).At the early childhood stage of development, the microsystem most directly affects the development of the child. The microsystem is the innermost level of one’s environment relating to the activities and interaction patterns of one’s immediate surroundings (Tissington, 2008). As such, the most influential microsystem of the child is the interaction with family members within the home (Bohlin, et al., 2009). Within the microsystems of the child, the parent/child relationship is the primary form of interaction for the child (Fu, n.d.).

Attachment

“Attachment is where the child uses the primary caregiver as a secure base from which to explore and, when necessary, as a haven of safety and a source of comfort” (Benoit, 2004, p. 541). Children without a healthy attachment perform more poorly in school than peers with parents that provide proper attachment. Those youth with histories of abuse, neglect and thus poor attachment, also struggle with social problems and high drop-out rates (Steinhauer, 1996). Successful attachment proved time and again to be a predictor of academic success (Steinhauer, 1996; Bruer-Thompson, 2007). Attachment “is imperative for optimal brain development and emotional health and its effects are felt physiologically, emotionally cognitively, and socially” (Bruer-Thompson, 2007, para. 1). The specific social orientation of the family environment also affects the mental development of literacy skills (Teale, 1986).

Language Development

According to Vygotsky’s theory of social interaction, in order to effectively develop literacy skills at the emergent literacy stage, children must play an active role in the learning process through socially interacting with adults or more mature peers (Learning Theories Knowledgebase, 2009). Learning, therefore, becomes a reciprocal experience between child and adult (Learning Theories Knowledgebase, 2009). Sulzby and Teale (1987) discovered that the storybook reading event between parent and child was a socially interactive event which involved discussion and questions between parent and child regarding the text. Through the reciprocation of engaging in social interaction during storybook reading, children can adequately develop necessary early literacy skills (Sulzby & Teale, 1987). Foster children often do not have the benefit of engaging in these necessary social interactions necessary to build literacy skills.

Need for Intervention

There must be discussion around determining foster children’s primary needs because the number of those children with needs not being met increases each year (Jacobson, 2008). It is no wonder that children experiencing abuse and neglect struggle socially and academically. Without healthy and consistent bonding processes, their brains learn to adapt in dysfunctional ways based on unmet needs and improper responses for cries for help (Fahlberg, 1991; Jensen, 1998).

Children with healthy attachments can respond to normal successful therapeutic practices, but children in foster care, who have endured neglect and abuse, do not respond well to this normal therapy. Their experiences have altered their ability to respond to appropriate attachment, thus giving them a different set of needs than a typically developing child. This type of foster child requires responses from adults such as empathy, acceptance, playfulness, affection, touch and most importantly patience. (The California Education Collaborative for Children in Foster Care, 2008; Ocasio and Knight, 2003; Noble, 1997; and Gilligan, 1999).

The child can exhibit a heightened sense of rage when their needs begin to be met for the first time because their schema for these emotions are limited or do not exist. The brain may be severely altered, and it will take much time and patience to undo the effects of the abuse and neglect (Bruer-Thompson, 2007; Jensen, 1998).

Tips and Strategies for the Classroom

Invest Time and Resources

The first step to reaching foster children is to invest time into getting to know the student and helping them acclimate to the classroom environment. Foster children possess unique needs since their home placement can change often and quickly, sometimes overnight. Due to this, foster children typically lack having that one teacher that truly noticed them and invested the time to get to know them. Spending only two minutes a day for ten consecutive days getting to know a student can begin establishing that crucial, initial connection between the teacher and student (McKibben, 2014). The connection between the teacher and student is crucial to meeting the needs of the child.

Because foster children can change placements so often, some teachers avoid reaching out to them for various reasons. An effective teacher will reach out to these students anyway; they will help them become a part of the classroom. Showing the student that you truly care about them can make all the difference for their growth and success. You may be the only stable person in the student’s life. By building trust, the teacher can begin to help the foster child build academic skills as well as appropriate and critical social skills.

In the classroom, foster children are often disengaged, lack involvement in the classroom, and can react to others in inappropriate ways leading to an array of disciplinary issues. Many foster children act out behaviors (i.e. hitting, yelling, and cussing) that they have seen and experienced in dysfunctional homes, thus why they were removed from life-threatening environments. To avoid disciplinary actions, the teacher can be proactive by helping the student know how to react to others in appropriate ways. With time and patience, teachers can identify when the student begins to feel strong emotions and guide the student to express those emotions in non-hurtful ways. These moments afford teachers the opportunity to help the student learn how to identify and express their emotions in a constructive manner. When a student expresses strong emotions, the teacher should have the student leave the situation. Once leaving the situation, the teacher should assist the student in:

a)Identifying feelings. Assist the child in reflecting on how they feel and identifying what caused the strong feelings.

b)Setting limits. Remind the student of the positive limits and expectations established for the student.

c)Asking questions. Encourage the student to think of solutions to the problems by asking open-ended questions.

d)Offering prompts. Provide prompts or suggestions when the student is having difficulty coming up with a solution.

(Gatrell & Cairone, 2014)

Provide Storybooks for the Home

Storybook reading is a key component of a literate home environment, proven to be the best way to develop early literacy skills (Neuman & Roskos, 1993; Teale, 1986). The reading of storybooks in the home has proven to be a natural way to encourage the development of literacy skills in children (Gillet, Temple & Crawford, 2004; Teale, 1983; Sulzby, 1985). Children develop literacy skills best through interactions with adults making the home environment an essential aspect in the adequate development of a young child’s literacy skills (Gillet, et al., 2004; IRA, 1994; National Institute for Literacy, 2003; Sulzby, 1985; Sulzby & Teale, 1987; Teale, 1983; Vygotsky, 1978).

Many foster children do not have storybooks available to read at home as they often lose every possession they have when they enter care. If drugs like methamphetamines were being produced in their home, all of their belongings are destroyed. That is a huge loss. As such, the lack of any reading resources available in the home can have a negative impact on the child’s literacy development as well as attitude toward reading.

Providing storybooks to families has a positive impact on the home literacy environment with the impact increasing over time (Thomason, 2008). This positive impact includes an increase in literacy skills as well as the child’s attitude toward reading (LaCour, McDonald, Tissington, & Thomason, 2013). In a recent study which provided needy families with storybooks to use at home, researchers found that families expressed great gratitude for receiving the storybooks, often stating that there was a previous lack of resources available in the home for daily storybook reading time (LaCour, et al., 2013). By providing storybooks to these families, the following was observed: 1) the student’s interest in reading improved, 2) attitude toward reading, both for students and caregivers, improved, and 3) student’s displayed an increase in literacy skills exhibited during storybook reading (LaCour, et al., 2013).

While foster parents make every effort to supply their needs as quickly as they can, teachers can help by providing storybooks to the students for use at home. Teachers can:

  1. Provide a list of free online reading resources to families. You can also print some of the books available at these sites to provide to the students (see Appendix A).
  2. Enroll needy students in book programs which will provide books for free to students in need upon registration (see Appendix B).
  3. Create a share and borrow program in your classroom, allowing students to check out books for use at home. Using your available scholastic points to purchase books or buying books at yard sales can provide you with an inexpensive way of stocking your classroom library. There are also book programs which will provide teachers with free or inexpensive books for use in their classroom (see Appendix C).

Engage in Dialogue during Read Alouds

Books, both fiction and nonfiction, can be engaging to students and serve as a great conversation starter. “Reading aloud invites children into the world of books, takes them on journeys to faraway lands, and motivates them to learn and explore” (Dollins, 2014, p. 9). Books can help you to ascertain the foster child’s interests, passions, and dreams. Through this process, you can help the child discover these elements about themselves as well, as there is a possibility that no one has ever discussed these ideas with them. Books also offer foster children with a safe place for escape; escaping to another time or place through reading can provide a critical coping mechanism for them when life events become too difficult or scary.

Two techniques that teachers can use in the classroom to encourage dialogue during the book reading event are the PEER sequence coupled with CROWD questions. In the PEER sequence, the teacher:

  1. Prompts the child to say something about the book.
  2. Evaluates the child’s response.
  3. Expands the child’s response by rephrasing and adding information to it.
  4. Repeats the prompt to make sure the child has learned from the expansions.

(Whitehurst, 1992, para. 9)

As discussed earlier, the foster child may be unwilling to openly discuss with others. A technique the teacher can use during the prompting phase of the PEER sequence is CROWD questions. During the prompting phase of PEER, the teacher can ask the child:

  1. Completion questions, similar to fill-in-the-blank. Typically in a completion question, the teacher will ask the child a question leaving a blank at the end for the child to complete.
  2. Recall questions. The teacher can ask the child to recall anything already discussed in the book. Recall questions can be used throughout the reading as well as at the end of the book.
  3. Open-ended prompts. The teacher can ask the child open-ended questions based on the pictures in the book. For example, the teacher can ask the child to describe what is happening in the picture.
  4. Wh- prompts. The teacher can use the five W questions: what, where, when, why, and how.
  5. Distancing prompts. The teacher can ask the child to relate the text to their own experiences. The teacher should be aware of the content of the story to ensure that it does not generate any connections to the negative experiences the child has endured.

(Whitehurst, 1992, para. 16)

To ensure productive dialogue during the book reading event, teachers should also provide praise and encouragement to the child for any input or discussion the child engages in during the reading (Morgan & Meier, 2008).

Teachers can use dialogue during the book reading event to engage and build connections with the foster child. Through the use of the PEER sequence and CROWD questions, teachers can guide the discussion to allow the child to connect with the teacher and the book.

Encourage the Foster Parent to Read with the Child

Children first learn language from their parents or caregivers. Babies imitate sounds and words they hear. For a child to be removed from their home and placed into foster care, the state must prove that abuse and/or neglect is placing the child’s life in immediate danger. Often because of their harmful environment, they have missed out on key language learning opportunities. Teachers can share specific tips and ideas with foster parents to assist them in encouraging literacy development in the foster child. Below is a sample of tips teachers can provide to parents.

  • Have reading materials such as storybooks and magazines available to the child along with their toys.
  • Read and write together. For example, if you are writing a grocery list, have the child help you.
  • Act out stories with the child.
  • Ask the child to draw pictures about the story.
  • Take a few minutes to read aloud to the child every day.
  • Be an avid reader yourself. Let the child see you reading. Show them that reading is something adults do.

Reading aloud to the child is one of the most important tips you can provide to the parent. “Reading aloud to young children prepares them for later proficiency in independent reading and writing” (Dollins, 2014, p. 9). The storybook reading event is most effective when dialogic reading strategies are implemented while reading aloud to the child (Whitehurst, 1992). Questioning and discussion is specifically linked to the development of written language, vocabulary, and comprehension skills (Senechal, LeFevre, Thomas, & Daley, 1998).